Saltado Sessions vs MAKID
MAKID and Saltado Sessions are both project managers for Ableton Live producers, and
both do the core job well: they gather your projects into one library, let you keep notes on each
one, and play your bounces without opening Live. The clean split is one thing each way.
MAKID's desktop app is free for Windows and macOS and has a companion iOS app
that puts your bounces on your phone today, which Sessions does not have yet. Sessions
handles everything after the bounce, meaning a book of record labels and a record of
every demo you send, and it reads deeper into the .als file itself. On money they
are not really cheaper and dearer so much as differently shaped: MAKID's desktop app costs
nothing and its mobile access starts at $7.99 a month, while Sessions is free for unlimited
projects with a one-time $44 for the power tools.
Start with the overlap, because it is real
Both tools exist because Ableton gives you no way to see across your own catalog. Both scan your drives and build one library out of projects that were scattered across folders and machines. Both let you attach notes to a project so the context does not live only in your head. Both play your exported bounces so you can audition an old idea without waiting for Live to load. If that is the whole of your problem, both will solve it and you should pick on which interface you prefer.
So the useful part of this page is not the overlap. It is the two places these tools genuinely point in different directions, one in each direction, plus the pricing shapes that follow from them.
What MAKID does that Sessions does not: your library in your pocket
MAKID has a companion iOS app that syncs your bounces to your phone, so the tracks you are working on are with you on the train, in the car, and anywhere you do your actual listening. That is a genuinely good idea and it is the single most concrete thing MAKID offers that Sessions cannot match today. A phone app is being built for Sessions, and you can read about what it will do, but "being built" is not "in your hand", and nobody should choose a tool on a promise when the alternative ships the thing now.
MAKID's mobile access is where its money is: the desktop app is free, and getting your bounces onto the phone requires MAKID Pro or Studio, which start at $7.99 a month. Whether that is good value is entirely a question of how much you listen away from the studio. If the answer is "constantly", it is cheap. If the answer is "I am always at the desk anyway", you are paying monthly for something you would not open.
What Sessions does that MAKID does not: everything after the bounce
Sessions treats a finished track as the beginning of a second job rather than the end of the first. It ships a book of record labels with their genres, submission routes and research notes, and it tracks every demo you send from sent, through no reply, to accepted or released, flagging anything that has gone quiet for 30 days. If your problem is not "where is that project" but "I have eleven finished tracks and no idea who has heard them", that is the entire feature, and it does not exist in MAKID.
The other direction is depth. Sessions reads the .als file itself for BPM, key,
the plugin and device list, the sample list, the arrangement, and the loudness of your bounces in
LUFS and true peak. That is what powers things like spotting a project whose samples were never
collected, or checking whether a set will open on a machine before you carry it to a gig. It also
covers ten DAW formats rather than one, so an Ableton library and an FL or Logic library sit in
the same place, with the honest caveat that the deepest reads are Ableton only.
Feature by feature
| Saltado Sessions | MAKID | |
|---|---|---|
| Desktop platforms | Windows, macOS | Windows, macOS |
| Desktop price | Free tier, $44 one-time for Pro | Free |
| Free tier project limit | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| DAW formats | Ten, Ableton Live first | Ableton Live |
| Notes on each project | Yes | Yes |
| Bounce playback on the desktop | Yes | Yes |
| Companion phone app | Being built | Yes, iOS |
| Cost of getting bounces on your phone | Not available yet | MAKID Pro or Studio, from $7.99/month |
| Syncing a library between machines | Backup, restore and a USB copy | Yes |
| BPM, key, plugin and sample reading from the .als | Yes | Not advertised |
| Arrangement view | Yes | Not advertised |
| Loudness metering (LUFS, true peak) | Yes | Not advertised |
| Label book and demo-submission tracking | Yes | No |
| Plugin Passport (compare collections with a collaborator) | Yes | Not advertised |
On price, honestly
Free is a real advantage and it would be silly to pretend otherwise. MAKID's desktop app costs nothing, so if the desktop library is all you want, the cheapest correct answer may well be MAKID. Sessions is also free for unlimited projects, and the $44 buys the power tools rather than the library itself, so the comparison at zero dollars is closer than the headline numbers suggest.
Where the shapes diverge is over time. MAKID's mobile side is a monthly bill for as long as you want it, which is the right model for a service that is syncing your files for you. Sessions is bought once and stays bought, including every update that follows. Neither shape is wrong. They just suit different people, and it is worth working out which one you are before the second year rather than after it.
Pick by which problem is louder
Choose Sessions if your problem is downstream
The library is tidy enough, but you have finished tracks that are not out anywhere, no record of who you sent what to, and you want to spend once rather than monthly.
Choose MAKID if your problem is on the move
You do your real listening away from the desk and want your current bounces on your phone today, and a free desktop app that keeps notes is enough of a library for you.
Try Saltado Sessions free. No account needed to use the library, nothing leaves your machine, and there is no project limit. Keep it free as long as you like; Pro is a one-time $44 when you want the power tools.
Still weighing things up? The wider write-up of Ableton project managers compared covers the rest of the category side by side, and the overview is the quickest way to see what Sessions actually looks like.
MAKID details are drawn from MAKID's public website and are accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of writing; features and pricing on either product can change, so check both sites for the latest. Rows marked "not advertised" mean we found no public claim either way, not that the feature is absent. MAKID is a trademark of its respective owner and this comparison is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.